Spiders are among the most feared creatures out there. And while some people didn't fear them initially, their bad experiences with spiders probably pushed them to join all the other arachnophobes. You might have heard about a Frenchman who was almost amputated after being bitten by an exotic spider. More recently, 24-year-old Christopher Tapp of Tonbridge, Kent, southeast of England, had a somewhat similar experience. He was also bitten by a spider, and he almost died.
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According to the Mirror, the young man was cleaning containers at work when he was bitten. He didn't feel a thing but later noticed a bite on his right leg. Over the following two weeks, the bite swelled and continued to get bigger. So he went to see a doctor who prescribed him antihistamines. He ended up going to the hospital, where he was sent in for surgery within two hours. Doctors told him that if he had shown up a day later, he would have died of blood poisoning. The infected tissue from his leg was then tested to determine what had caused this reaction. Based on the results, it was without a doubt a black widow, one of the most dangerous spiders in the world.
'You can't chance it'
I am definitely more cautious now than before. 100 percent. As soon as I feel something on my leg or arm, I flinch and start panicking,” said Christopher Tapp.
Tapp also emphasised the need to better educate people about spiders to avoid his situation repeating itself with others:
I would say don't judge a book by its cover, in a sense. It's mainly the little spiders who are the worst. They're the most dangerous… It just takes that initial bite and that's it. It goes from there. You might have nothing happen, you might be like me. You can't chance it.
